3 boaters drown in accident off Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - A boat ferrying tourists from a small island to the mainland Dominican Republic has sunk, killing three local tourists.

Director Edwin Olivares of the country's Emergency Operations Center said Monday that four Russians and an Italian were rescued but the crews did not arrive in time to save the three Dominican women.

The boat was traveling from Saona Island to the resort city of Bayahibe on the southeast coast on Sunday.

Rescue workers at first suspected a magnitude-5.1 quake could have caused high waves, but Stuart Weinstein of the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says the quake was too deep to have much of an effect on the surface.